Cure Me

Cure Me focuses on transforming the way that we approach healthcare, specifically for children with chronic diseases, in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for each patient. We emphasize proactive care (anticipating and addressing needs and challenges) and improved reliability (making sure everything is done the way it was intended) to assure that the best care is delivered to each patient.

Imagine meeting not just with a doctor or nurse to teach you about your child’s new diagnosis, but also with a parent of a child who is facing the same challenges. Or a system of care where your doctor sits down with a whole team of experts BETWEEN your child’s appointments to review how they are doing and to call you if there are any changes that need to be made. Imagine parents and patients meeting with their entire care team outside of clinic to discuss ways to improve the care of all children with that disease. These, and numerous other ideas, are being tried and tested every day at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

Does it help? Here are a few examples of our Cure Me efforts.

Cancer Index

We report our data using what is known as a control chart. There are four elements on the chart. 1) The blue diamonds: these are the actual data points for each month. They depict the event rate as defined on the vertical axis. 2) and 3): The dotted red lines: these are the upper and lower control limits. They are scientifically calculated to represent the statistical range within which normal random variation occurs in a stable system. 4) The solid red line. This is the average of the blue diamonds for that time frame. As long as the blue diamonds are within the dotted red lines, the system being measured is a stable one. There are certain patterns of blue diamond configuration (e.g. diamonds outside the control limits), that mean something in the system has changed. This is called special cause variation and will usually involve a deeper investigation as to why the new pattern of variation. Each control chart contains an arrow which indicates the desired change direction. For most harm events, the desired direction is down (i.e. less harm is better). For other measures (compliance rates, days between harm events) the desired direction is up.